Day 015 - Genesis 36-37

So we're faced today with two rather different chapters and again God is nowhere in sight (though Joseph's dreams are an indicator that he is acting through this story).

It's genealogy time again. Yay! For me recording these into a microphone is a bit of a challenge as I try and pronounce what is written on the page, knowing full well that the transliteration is done in different ways for other translations. Most of the names too are unfamiliar to me and so it's difficult to see their relevance other than to recognise that whilst God's promise is to be fulfilled through Jacob, Esau too becomes the father of many nations. There is the odd familiar name including Amalek whose descendants will one day fight with Israel.

Moving on from there, we are introduced to the final major narrative of the story as Joseph takes centre stage. And he's a bit of a big head isn't he. Even though his dreams are from God, he lacks sensitivity in sharing them with his brothers who already bear a grudge against him due to his being his father's favourite.

Again it's a strange situation for the modern western reader to get his head around. Here we have a man who has 12 kids by four different women who really don't get on too well. When one of them becomes his father's favourite and then adds boasting to his list of sins most of them have little compunction in selling him into slavery. Only Reuben shows any sign of caring about his younger half-brother.

With the benefit of hindsight we can see how God was to work through this whole situation and once again God chooses people with messed up relationships to advance his plan.

Day 014 - Genesis 33-35

After playing a prominent role in chapter 32, God takes a back seat again and doesn't act directly until chapter 35. In the meantime we get a couple of rather different events going on.

The meeting of Jacob with his brother Esau after all those years apart is a bit of an anticlimax dramatically. If you were making a film of it I reckon most directors would play it more along the lines of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back. However there's none of that tension here and Esau goes straight for the hug and the kiss. It's a surprise though, as all we've ever seen Jacob do prior to this is to cheat his brother and he has every right to expect animosity at best and death threats at the worst.

We then get the terrible story of Dinah's rape by a guy from another tribe called Shechem. The text is rather dispassionate and makes it sound as if rape is an everyday occurrence (and maybe it was), but that falling in love with a rape victim isn't. The other thing that strikes me from this passage is that Dinah never gets to say anything and all the talking that goes on is between Jacob and his sons and the Hivite blokes.

You can't help but smile at the rather twisted revenge that Jacob's sons inflict on the Hivites as they con them into getting circumcised and then slaughter them all whilst they're convalescing. However this doesn't take away from the fact that they have just gone and killed a bunch of people. The ending of the passage is rather unsatisfactorily ambiguous about the morality of the whole thing. Jacob is clear in his condemnation of his sons actions (though it seems there are selfish reasons at play here), but the sons try and justify their actions by citing the protection of their sister's honour.

God turns up again at this point with instructions for Jacob to move on and settle somewhere else. There's a purge of idols at this point as Jacob seeks to put worship of the true God in order. God repeats his Abrahamic promise to Jacob here before tragedy strikes in the form of Jacob's favourite wife dying whilst giving birth to her second son.

The chapter ends matter-of-factly with a lost of Jacob's sons and the death of Issac

Hello Again

For anyone who is still following this blog and wondering where I'd got to, you needn't wonder anymore. Yes I'm back and hopefully this time I'll get through more than 13 days worth of readings this time.

Ok, we're jumping back into Jacob's story in Genesis 33.